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Monday, June 28, 2010

I wanted to post a quick shout out to the Bane. He's been posting about his work with my RPG Hi/Lo Heroes over on his Blog: Mutants and Masterminds Medley. He's got some great ideas for new rules and Hi/Lo Heroes stats for Spider-man and Batman over there. Check it out!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Squadron UK was originally published as a game called: Golden Heroes. Interestingly, I owned the boxed edition of Golden Heroes but never played it. I traded the game for a copy of the revised edition (2nd Ed) of Villains and Vigilantes. I owned the original first edition of V&V but wanted the superior updated version. Besides, friends had played V&V ... no one had played Golden Heroes, so, V&V was an easier “sell” to my gaming group.

My traded copy of V&V came with a lot of supplemental materials, a slew of villain books that had wonderful illustrations by Jeff Dee and paper counters on the back cover. I don’t regret the trade, but thinking back now, Golden Heroes was a beautiful package and one I should have found a way to keep a hold of.

This feeling that I had really given up something great is compounded as I look at the free version of Golden Heroes called, Squadron UK: Basic.

There are a handful of free “quick-start” game products out there. Most of these are stripped down versions of a game meant to give players just a “taste” of what they can expect from a game. These are cool, but I don’t categorize them as free RPG’s. I categorize them as advertisements. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s a distinction I think I should make before pointing out that, Squadron UK: Basic is no advertisement. It is a free RPG.

The free download available from RPG Nowis 31 pages and very complete. It looks to me to be tighter and better presented than 4C and it might be (at least on paper) the best free supers RPG available if it plays as well as my “gut” tells me it will. As I mentioned, I never played Golden Heroes. So, I don’t know how it plays, but being a fan of old school RPGs, I see a lot to like here. I am newly excited about this game in a way that I never was back in the late 80’s.

Squadron UK is pretty old school in a lot of ways but it looks like it can handle comic book style super heroes with flair, and given that 4C just somehow failed to excite me, this gem was a joy to find. For most of you, this won’t be news ... but I hadn’t given it a look before now, so maybe there are others out there who missed it too.

Squadron UK: Basic is free and very complete, but there’s more good news ... It’s just the beginning. The game has a pay version that includes helpful examples, a few more powers, and attractive artwork. All wonderful things for those who try and enjoy the basic game and decide that they want more. Plus supplements ... additional materials to add to your game should you find Squadron UK as wonderful as I believe you will.

Give it a look. The price is definitely right. Supers RPG’s ... I love them.

My thanks to Andrew at Zenith Comics for bringing this to my attention. Just felt like I needed to share because the more people to learn about great stuff like this the better! Jeff Dee and Jack Herman the original creators of Villains and Vigilantes have formed Monkey House Games and announced the return of Villains and Vigilantes "... back in the hands of its creators ..."

I have very fond memories of playing V&V way back when. It was truly a marvelous supers RPG and has inspired much of my own work in RPG creation. Back when "Living Legends" came out I was very excited to see Jeff Dee returning to create a supers RPG. I remember buying it and signing up at my local convention to run the game. But unfortunately, "Living Legends" just failed to appeal to me like I had hoped that it would and I would up running a different supers game that came out at that same time, "Truth and Justice."

There is really nothing wrong with Living Legends (although I haven't played it.) It just wasn't Villains and Vigilantes. It wasn't even close. It wasn't an upgrade, a modernizartion, an evolution of that great old game at all. But, it was the work of Jeff Dee, one of V&V's original creators ... so I bought it, and I soon gave up any hope of ever seeing an updated supported V&V. I just accepted that it wouldn't happen.